Friend,

This Black History Month, we have a particular opportunity to honor the accomplishments and contributions of Black women in the United States—by nominating and confirming the first Black woman to the nation’s highest court.

With the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer, President Biden will follow through on his campaign promise to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court, which he correctly noted is “long overdue.”¹

For hundreds of years, the vast majority of people in political institutions have been white men. Out of 115 people who’ve been confirmed as Supreme Court justices, 112 were white, and 110 were men.

Now we have a chance to correct this centuries-old gender and race imbalance, with many highly qualified Black women able to serve. As legal advocate Ravan Austin said recently:

“This nomination is deeply personal for me, as I begin my legal career in a field that is often unwelcoming to those that look like me. Black girls everywhere must know with visible proof there is no table at which they cannot sit.”²

Supreme Court justices’ lived experiences matter greatly given the extremely important and varied issues the Supreme Court decides, which determine our rights in workplaces, our rights and access to abortion, our voting rights, and more. These decisions disproportionately affect historically marginalized people, and we need a justice who will understand that.

President Biden will announce his nominee by the end of this month. But with racist and sexist right-wing backlash to President Biden’s announcement, it’s clear that Republicans will try to delay the confirmation process. That’s why we’ve got to show public support for diversifying the Supreme Court, and soon.

Please sign the petition urging President Biden to nominate a progressive Black woman to the Supreme Court.

As law professor Sheryll Cashin shared recently:

“There will be many Black girls across the nation who will see themselves for the first time as future lawyers and judges, and that will contribute to diversifying the profession.”²

Thank you for helping to ensure that our political and legal institutions reflect the country in which we live.

- Rashida

¹ https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/30/politics/black-women-supreme-court-nominee/index.html
² https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/01/28/black-women-in-law-supreme-court-nomination/